UK FF needs your help: Attacks On Firefighters

I am a UK firefighter and I have just secured funding to conduct an international study on attacks on firefighters during the course of their duty. It is funding that I had to fight hard to get. This is a rapidly increasing problem for our brothers and sisters in the UK. I, myself, have endured being stoned, spat at, and had LPG cylinders left in car fire's as a bomb for my crew and I. Recentley in Scotland a firefighter was shot in the head with an air gun en route to a fire, and in Ireland a firefighter was stabbed at a car fire. So as you see, the fire is not our only enemy anymore.

I have already travelled to Israel for the first leg of my research. Later in the year I will be spending 2 weeks in South Afica, then 6 weeks in North America. Provisionally I am hoping to travel to Chicago, San Fransisco and New York. Can anyone highlight any areas where attacks are prevailant or has anyone experienced attacks on duty? Any information or contacts that you can offer would be greatly appreciated as this pproject is still in its infancy.

There have been a nuber of incidents where guns were pulled and used to threaten state and federal fire crews who were going to atempt a burnout or backfire on private land. The land owner took exception to his land being used as the site of a backfire or burnout.

This has happened in my area of MT at least 2 times I can recall in recent memory. Last time was in 2002.

Niether incident resulted in any shots fire or injuries, and also niether incident resulted in any arests.

The firefighters wisely decided to conduct their operations elsewhere.

IIRC in both incidents the sheriff department was called out. The local sheriffs do not have any love for the fed or state wildfire entities. They would be mroe likely to arrest the USFS guy with the drip torch for arson and destruction of private property then they would to arrest the land owner brandishing the fire arm. IIRC in the 2002 incident the local sheriff actualy back up the land owner and ran off the USFS crew.

And in any case it is legal to shoot trespassers here in MT from what I gather. I dont forsee a jury convicting a land owner for shooting a fire fighter that was trying to burn up/destroy his land, which is often their means of support, IE agriculture producer. Wheather the fire crews have the right to be on private land has been a issue here for a while. While the books are fairly clear that the county fire warden has the power to conduct operations of private land, I dont know for sure about the feds jurisdiction.

Just reality here. Not saying its right or wrong, just the way it is. The BLM and USFS are for the most part despised by a lot of the population of MT.

IIRC there was an incident in western MT recently where a wildfire would start, the crew would attack it, and then a second fire would start in a spot that could trap the crew. They finaly caught the arsonist just recently IIRC. He was trying to get firefighters killed, but was not succesfull in that regaurd. He did start a hell of a lot of fires though.

-Brotherhood: I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
-Mistakes: It could be that the purpose of you life is to serve as a warning to others.